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2 comments on “What I Wish Anime Would Do!”

Nice topic. It is interesting to ask yourself on what anime can do for us. I like how you mentioned about Zootopia with the social issues and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and the earthquakes. Coming from California, it earthquakes can happen quite often.

Personally, I think if we are on the topic of earthquakes, it would be interesting to see an anime about the San Andreas earthquake. Based on what I hear, California is due to have one and if it does happen, it will be devastating. It would interesting to see how will an anime portray this event.

Another idea is about religion. I would like to see how anime can talk about discrimination and prejudice towards religion. In the news, we see people talk about Muslims as “extremists or terrorists” or how Christians are being persecuted for their beliefs. I would like to see how anime deals with religion.

In my opinion, one of the best anime films to touch on a real issue is one of Studio Ghibli’s earlier productions, Grave of the Fireflies. I highly recommend this film if you haven’t seen it already, but be warned, it is HEARTBREAKING to watch. I haven’t even cried that much while watching a live-action film. Grave of the Fireflies focuses on brother and sister, Seita and Setsuko, as they deal with the aftermath of the firebombing of Kobe, Japan during World War II. While it is a great movie, it is quite depressing and hard to watch, so much so that I’ve only watched it 3 times in all the years that I’ve owned the DVD.

I think one of the reasons we don’t get to see much anime with realistic themes or real-world situations is because the anime industry has become more focused on making money, as one of your YouTube followers alluded to. Sex and fan service sells, and that’s why we unfortunately don’t get too many titles like Grave of the Fireflies. That’s also why practically every protagonist in any random anime series right now is a rehash of the same character type.

I would like to see an anime series about a child growing closer to their parent, be it one parent out of the two or their single-parent. Perhaps this parent spends more time working or focused on personal matters than on their child, living their child to feel neglected. The child can be aged 6-17, and while I know this occurs in some anime shows, I haven’t really seen this as a central theme. For the most part children are practically orphans in anime, or adults in the bodies of children or teenagers. They live alone in homes that their parents seemingly bankroll, or their parents live with them but are rarely seen interacting with them, like the kids in The Peanuts cartoons. For example, none of the main characters in Girls Bravo seemed to live with their parents or have living parents. In the first episode, Yukinari Sasaki comments that he lives alone because his father took a job in the U.S. taking his mother with him, but leaving their home in 16-year-old Yukinari’s care.

I understand that the absence of parents is useful in anime with nonstop shenanigans, but I would like to see a thought-provoking anime movie or series about the parent-child relationship.